Peter Bermel, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is directing the Purdue Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement Microelectronics Workforce Development program (SCALE).
Purdue University photo/Vincent Walter
Peter Bermel, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is directing the Purdue Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement Microelectronics Workforce Development program (SCALE).
Purdue University photo/Vincent Walter
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Purdue University will be leading a national initiative sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to address the urgent need for engineering graduates to develop defense technologies, especially in the area of microelectronics.
The Scalable Asymmetric Lifecycle Engagement Microelectronics Workforce Development program (SCALE) is a $19.2-million, multi-university public-private-academic partnership that will foster workforce development across national engineering universities.
“The U.S. workforce development program will be scalable to be used by any interested higher education institution,” says Mark Lewis, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering at the Department of Defense.
The program, announced in October 2020, will be conducted in partnership with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division as a nationally coordinated network of government, industry and university partners, regionally executed. The goal is to create an asymmetric workforce advantage in microelectronics.
The United States once held a global advantage in microelectronics manufacturing, but due to industry consolidation, in 2020 only four companies maintain semiconductor fabrication capabilities at 14-nm and below. These are U.S.-based Intel Corporation, Taiwan-based Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), South Korea-based Samsung, and U.S.-based (but Abu Dhabi-owned) GlobalFoundries.
Alison Smith, chief engineer of materials analysis at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, says that defense industries must compete for engineers even when as many as 60 percent of companies in the United States report difficulty in hiring qualified engineers.
Purdue Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships Theresa Mayer says secure and resilient microelectronic systems “underpin advanced technologies critical to national security, including artificial intelligence, hypersonics, advanced communications networks, autonomous systems, and others. Cutting-edge education and research are at the heart of meeting these national security needs.”
The Purdue SCALE program, directed by Peter Bermel, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, brings together Purdue Engineering faculty with faculty from 14 universities, the Department of Defense, NASA, Department of Energy NNSA labs, and the defense industry to create a microelectronics workforce focused on national security needs.
